Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-03-26
Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, March 81, 1887,

dent Cleveland's birth. He carefully
avoided any celebration, or rather he
the occasion by carefully
giving his entire attention to public
business. The President is not of an
or sentimental nature.
He is constitutionally opposed to
everything which partakes of the
character of self-glorification, and
such he considers a. mans celebration
of his own birthday to be.
When asked by Mr.. Soteldo, the
Minister from Venezuela, why he
was not celebrating the natal day, he
is reported to have said, vanity,
vanity, it is all vanity. If man
really feels that his birth was a stroke
of luck to him, continued he, let him
rejoice by. all means; but l don't
think he has any right to disturb the
town about it and / don't think it
would be modest to ask all the rest of
the world to rejoice in an event
which had so littleinterest for them"
Birthday cards in large numbers
came from all parts of the country,
and friends in Washington sent flow
ers accompanied by congratulations.
There was the usually tri-weekly
handwriting in the East Room,
which was attended by about five
hundred people, a large proportion
of whom were eXcursionists from
Buffalo and the surrounding district
in Northwestern New York. They
were anoticeably unpresuming crowd
of eXcursionists. They filed quietly
past the President, not one of them
showing any desire to be familiar or
to receive attention on account of. be-
ing from the Presiden' former home.
The visit ofex-Senator Thurman to
this city furnished the political Cos
sips with food for whole day. They
could not learn positively whether
his conference with the President
had reference to the appointment OF
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sioners, the Pacific railroad investi-
cation, the English mission, or the
Secretary-ship of the Treasury. ".The
noblest Roman of them all " settled
these canards himself. When asked
if the President had rendered him
any position he replied, "No; l an
neither to be Secretary of State MOI
Secretary of the Treasury nor Minis
ter of England. | am not even go
ing to be an Interstate Commission
er." He added that his call on thu
President was entirely social ant
that he was not after Office.
There is little occasion for tn,
widespread alarm as to the financial
situation during the interval befor
Congress convenes. The condition 0
the Treasure is much stronger THAI
it was nine months ago, the distribu
ton of currency much more favora
bic and adequate, and the circum
stanceS'in many respects more reas
surfing. The surplus is smaller, tn
gold fund is stronger, and the circula
ton and supply of convenient form
of small currency is more abundant
That which is deemed chiefly un
favorable in the situation is tn
fact that only thirty millions of bond
remain subject to call, and that afte
three monthly calls this means c
putting money into circulation viii
be cut off. 1t is fact however, tina
recent bond calls have been of littl
service, and that the Treasury ha
ample authority and has declared it
willingness to go into the market an,
buy bonds at current rates if the stu
alton should become such as to cal
for this action.
Those whose opinions on the sub
ject are best worth knowing thin
there is no reason to fear that tn
coming summer and autumn vii
bring any serious financial disturb
ance, or that the strength of tn
Treasury and the skill of its mans
gers are not fully equal to all emel
gencies that may arise.
The Cabinet-makers who have dis
posed of Treasury portfolio for MI
Cleveland more than a dozen time
since Secretary Manning resigned
are really little embarrassed jus
now as to what to say next. 1t Wa
positively asserted that Speaker Ca
Isle was offered the place last Satul
day and declined. Since there hs
been so much delay in the matte
some of them now take it for granite
Mr.. Manning's successor will not
named until the LIST. Of April, tn
date when his resignation take